The idea of "the red thread" had been around for a few years, it just took a band break-up and a drunken New Years' Eve to put it into motion. Jason Lakis began writing after the band he was playing drums for, Half Film, disbanded. Half film had put out a couple records, toured Europe with Swell and ended up calling it quits around 1999. He made demos over the course of a summer and hadn't even thought about getting together a live band for the material until he slurred the idea to three old friends (and part-time bandmates) one new years eve. "The Inspectors," a jazzy/garagy combo were up for it. They re-recorded all Jason's songs as a full band. The product turned out to be After The Last, the band's debut on Badman Recording Co. A national tour followed, along with some great press, including positive reviews in Mojo, Uncut, and CMJ.

Becoming the creative force behind his own band was a significant change for Lakis. In his previous incarnation, he was merely the Ringo of the group. "One thing I love about playing drums is that you can sit back there, and if you know your parts, you'll be holding the rhythm and it's really fun," he says. "Sip your beer in between songs and you don't have to worry about the voice. But after I got out of Half Film, I slowly began singing again, and I was thinking, 'OK, maybe I'll do an instrumental band with just a little bit of singing, and then all of a sudden, all of these songs just kept coming and getting finished."

In 2004 the band put themselves back on the road with like-minded artists Neko Case and the underrated Bay Area band Swell. Positive tour press, and two strong albums lead to packed gigs in the Midwest and Southwest areas of the US.

The Red Thread disbanded in the summer of 2007. Jason formed a new band called Mist and Mast http://www.mistandmast.com and Dan and Joe play in This Isn't It.